by Ivan Turner
"Nigel, please don't do this," Shawn cried into the wind, but Nigel ignored him. He turned to the girls. "This is a really bad idea." His instinct was to gather them up and run. If fighting the zombies was a bad idea, it was compounded by their standing around in the empty street. But he was loyal to Nigel, who had been a friend for a long time. He couldn't just leave him. At this point, their best bet was to dispatch the zombies quickly and move on. Let Nigel have his revenge.
"Just keep an eye out," he said to Dawn. "Let me know if you see any more."
She nodded dumbly, but Janise gave him a more affirmative response.
With the girls on lookout, he went forward and joined Orlando and Nigel as they met the zombies. He was careful of his wound as he engaged the undead. Unarmed, there was little he could do if he didn't want to get too deep into it. He warned his friends to watch out for the teeth, the fingernails, and any exposed bone. Anything that could cut, scratch, or otherwise draw blood was as lethal as a nuclear bomb. If they wanted to fight zombies, they didn't need to be stupid about it.
Orlando was heedless of the teeth, the fingernails, the bone, the blood, and everything else. Once they were close enough, he charged straight for them. The only one of them that was bigger than he was the woman. But she hadn't been in good shape when she was alive and death had not been kind to her. Orlando threw an elbow into her face as he charged by. He grabbed the tattooed young man with his right hand and the scientist with his left. Shawn could see that he was surprised by their strength. He should have been able to bring them down easily, but only the young man was taken off his feet. He must have been too light to handle Orlando's weight. The scientist, however, was much more solid. He slid back a few feet, his ankles skidding in the snow. But he held onto Orlando's arm with both hands and dipped his face in for a bite. Much to his credit, Orlando compensated. He let the tattooed man fall and reached over with the left hand to grab the scientist by his short hair. With both arms on him, the scientist wasn't much of a match for Orlando. His boast about being able to fight a hundred of them had been well founded.
But none of them were out of action yet. The big woman had recovered and the tattooed man was getting to his feet. They were slow, maybe even slower because of the cold. Shawn noticed that the snow seemed to collect on them as if they were statues. Only their motion shook it away. They had no body heat to melt it.
Nigel moved in and tripped up the tattooed man. He went back to the pavement and Nigel began stomping on his face. Orlando used the scientist as a weapon against the big woman. He bounced them off of each other like dots in a game of pong. Shawn intercepted the karate guy just as he was getting ready to complete the triple team of Orlando. Doubly disadvantaged by his wound and the fact that he couldn't seem to convince himself that this zombie did not know karate, Shawn approached cautiously. It struck him funny, the idea of a zombie adept with the martial arts. Somewhere out there there had to be a movie borne of that concept. Kung Fu Zombies. But this zombie proved adept at only reaching for prey. Shawn sidestepped its outstretched hand and got behind it. The trouble was, he didn't want to touch it so he didn't know what to do with his advantage.
"Shawn!"
He turned at the sound of Dawn's voice and saw what she saw. There were four more zombies coming up the street. They were coming from the direction of Nigel's house. But Janise was pointing in a completely different direction and she looked panic stricken. Back the way they had come were about ten zombies shuffling down the road.
With his head down, Shawn rammed into the karate guy and sent him sprawling. Grabbing Nigel by his coat, he yanked his friend away from the tattooed man with the now mashed head. Orlando was toying with his two zombies, still bouncing one away and waiting for it to come back. He seemed to be enjoying himself a little too much. And yet the steam coming from his nose and mouth was coming in shorter and shorter intervals. Orlando was tiring.
"We've got to go," Shawn said to Nigel. "We need to find a safe place to hole up."
"My sister," said Nigel.
Shawn pointed down the street. The four new zombies were closing and two more had appeared behind them. It was what Shawn had feared. A large group had splintered and they were catching the remnants, probably drawn there by the noise of the fight.
"But my sister…" Nigel repeated.
"She's probably safe in the house," Shawn lied. "Scared, but safe. We’ve got to go."
"Let’s go," Juliet echoed.
Nigel looked at the approaching zombies. They could probably run past the zombies in their way, but if there was a larger group out of view they would get pinched. That would be the end of them. The only choice was to run the other way.
"Lando, let's go."
Orlando gave the scientist a good hard shove and walked away from the fight. The three surviving zombies started after him with little hope of catching up. As they raced down the street, one or another of them kept stopping and saying, How about here? The avenue was loaded with all different types of shops. All were closed, either because of the snow or the zombies or both. Sometimes they saw faces or just eyes through the windows and the locked doors. But they didn't stop and they didn't beg for entry. They would not have been granted it. Frightened people huddled in the dark were likely to remain so. There would be no risk taking for six stupid kids out in the zombie jungle.
Coming to a crossroads, they saw zombies approaching from all three directions in front of them. The way behind seemed clear, but those zombies were just out of view. Shawn wasn't sure the monsters could track them after the distance they'd put between them but he sure as hell wasn't going back to check. They'd have to head straight for a zombie group and hope for the best. He chose the smallest group, three zombies, and started running. He warned the others to go around them rather than get involved in a fight. Nigel, still angry, managed to keep control of himself but it looked as if Orlando was heading straight for the group.
"Lando!" Juliet admonished, seeing the same thing.
Orlando caught himself and skidded around them at the last minute, but he lost his footing in the snow. As big as he was, Orlando was graceful enough to be able to fall properly. Instead of tumbling to the ground and possibly hurting himself, he slid and broke into a roll. Nigel was by his side in a moment, helping him to his feet. There were other problems, though.
The group of three that Shawn had chosen was actually a group of ten. Hidden by the whirling storm were seven more zombies. They came into view, pathetic shambling forms covered in the falling snow. The fell upon the teens even before there was a second to react. Juliet was their unfortunate first victim.
She ran headlong into two zombies, a construction worker and a sailor. Seriously. A sailor. He was wearing a blue uniform and traditional sailor's cap. He'd probably been dead since Halloween. The two took hold of Juliet together and pressed her in between them. She panicked and lost total control. They pinned her and began tearing at her jacket and clothing to get to the flesh beneath.
Orlando screamed her name and charged forward. He fell in the snow again, this time going down on his knee. He cried out in terrible pain but pushed himself back to his feet with a growl. Though it was plain that he was in agony, he pressed forward and reached her just as the two zombies had gotten through her jacket and were starting on her sweater. Nigel came to help but he was slower. Shawn started forward and then noticed that the three zombies they had passed had turned and were very close to Dawn and Janise.
Nigel and Orlando were on their own.
When Orlando reached Juliet, she had already suffered her first bite. That meant she was dead. This didn't register in Orlando's mind, at least not on a rational level. He was just angry that they had the nerve to be tearing at his girl. He grabbed the sailor first, a guy who was at least as big as Orlando himself. Incensed though, Orlando tossed him aside like an irritating toy. The sailor fell to the ground, twisting and turning in the snow.
Next came the construction worker. It had bitten
Juliet's arm but she had pulled away and was
pounding on its face with her fists. Orlando got right in between them. Like King Kong, he grabbed hold of the construction worker by its chin. He forced his hands into its mouth and began pulling its jaw apart. As strong as the zombies were, this one was no match for Orlando. The jaw snapped and the bottom half flopped around by the skin still connecting it to the face. Orlando shoved it down to the ground and turned to Juliet. His hands were now scraped and bloody and he, too, was done for.
Dawn had seen the approaching zombies and moved in to fight, throwing away her bag. Janise was a little less aggressive but was holding her own. They were both being careful not to lose their footing in the snow. Shawn moved in to even the odds. Ignoring the throbbing in his side, he used every last trick he'd learned from all of the street fights he'd been in. Most of them didn't work. The zombies didn't feel pain. There was no way to weaken them. He tried hitting below the belt. He tried kidney punches. He managed to break one zombie's nose and even smashed another in his adam's apple. Nothing. He was barely driving them back. After a few short minutes of this, Shawn managed to knock one of the zombies down and realized how difficult it was for them to get back up in the rapidly accumulating snow. He went first to Dawn and then to Janise. He got between the legs of the zombies while they were distracted and took them down.
Orlando was on the ground nursing his aching knee and trying to comfort Juliet at the same time. Nigel was begging them to get up. More zombies were closing in and they needed to run. Shawn came up next to them and saw the bite wounds.
"Come on, man," he said to Nigel. "There's nothing we can do."
"We're just going to leave them?" Janise complained. "They're our friends."
Shawn pointed to Juliet's arm and Orlando's hands. "You see that? They're dead."
"Fuck you, man," Orlando said, but the wind had gone from his sails.
"Don't get mad at me," Shawn replied. "You wanted a fight and you got it."
Nigel reached down and grabbed Orlando's arm. "Can you walk on that knee?"
Orlando tried to get up, but his knee buckled. Juliet fell into his arms sobbing.
Shawn looked at the approaching zombies and the ones nearby that were struggling to get up. It seemed like more than ten now. Of course, they would have drawn more. There would be more still if they didn't get moving.
"Help me get him up," Nigel said to Shawn.
Shawn looked at Nigel and then looked at Orlando. There were zombies just a few feet away and he wanted to try and help Orlando to walk?
"Nigel, there's no time."
Nigel turned and pushed him. "We ain't leavin' them. You help me or I'm gonna feed you to 'em."
Shawn's brow creased and the corners of his mouth fell. He took one step forward and pushed Nigel back. Nigel almost slipped in the snow but managed to keep his balance just before going down. He ran at Shawn, but Shawn stepped out of the way. There was no way for Nigel to stop himself on the wet ground and so charged past. In a moment, he was in the arms of two approaching zombies. They grabbed him up and began to attack in the only way that they knew. One was much taller than Nigel and dug its teeth into his scalp. He cried out and pulled away. It was just a flesh wound, scrapes beneath his hair. But it was enough. Nigel was now as dead as Orlando and Juliet. And Shawn had no time for dead people.
Grabbing Dawn with one hand and Janise with the other, he led them away from the scene. Janise protested, but only verbally. She showed no resistance. They walked instead of ran. They stepped around the zombies, who reached for them and changed their directions. After a minute, they could hear Nigel swearing loudly as he fought the approaching zombies by himself. His cried lost articulation shortly and Shawn squeezed his eyes shut as he marched down the street. He held on tight to the hands of the two girls. He could feel them protesting. Let them protest. If the three of them survived, Dawn and Janise would be able to blame Shawn. That would help them sleep at night.
Soon, Nigel's cries were joined by Juliet's and Orlando's. Orlando was tough all the way, spitting profanities at the zombies even when his tone turned from anger to pain.
They were dead anyway, Shawn thought. He couldn't have saved them. Just like when he'd taken a pipe to the head of Allison Ciccio, Larry Koplowitz's first and only bite victim. No doctor could have saved her and no doctor could have saved Nigel, Juliet, and Orlando. If he'd had a pipe, he'd have killed them all himself. It would have been merciful.
At the next corner, they suddenly found themselves on a wide road. Shawn looked to his right and saw the park. They had gotten turned around. In all of the confusion, they had wandered back toward the park. The zombie army was milling about, not really having a direction at this point. Many of them were still in the park. To his left were more zombies, just a few, noticing them and reacting. Across the street were empty stores. Behind them, all of those that they had passed were coming. He couldn't see them yet, but he knew they were there. They were surrounded.
Where had it all gone wrong? Was this his fault? He felt as if he should have known better, should have been able to lead them all to safety. Though Shawn had done little more than follow the pack, he had this overwhelming sense of responsibility.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a pair of wool gloves and slipped them on over his fingers. He told the girls to do the same. Then he wrapped his scarf around his head. When they were done, they were covered from head to toe except for their eyes and their scalps. Shawn led them away from the army, still walking. They were just taking a casual stroll in the snow. Although it was really anything but casual. Their adrenaline levels were so high that they barely felt the cold. As they walked, the zombies moved in to surround them. Janise started making small sounds in her throat.
"Do what I do," Shawn said as if he knew what to do. But he had been watching and he had been learning.
A zombie got close enough to reach for him. Without reacting too aggressively, he batted away its arms and pushed it hard. It stumbled back and fell down, bringing another zombie down with it. Shawn kept walking.
Behind him, Dawn did the same thing. The zombie she pushed did not fall, but it did give her some distance. They went on like that down the block, just shoving aside the zombies that moved close enough to touch.
"Where are we going to go?" Janise asked.
"The school," said Shawn. "It’s the only place I can think of."
They weren't exactly headed in the right direction, but they weren't exactly headed in the wrong direction either. Shawn mapped out a route in his head and figured it for nine blocks. Hopefully, in that time, they'd be able to shake off their zombie pursuit long enough for someone to open the doors and let them in. They had a real advantage in the snow. If the weather had been pleasant and the ground dry, they probably wouldn't have been able to negotiate a path through the small groups of the undead. But they finally broke clear of all zombie presence a couple of blocks down and began to breathe a little bit easier. At that point, Shawn picked up the pace.
"I can't believe we just left them," Janise complained.
"There wasn't anything we could do."
"We coulda tried."
"They were bit."
"So what?"
"They were bit, Janise," Shawn said to her. "Now keep quiet or you'll draw more of them to us."
After that, they walked in silence, seven blocks until the school building came into sight. Only then did Shawn fully understand. The army that they had seen at the park had come from the school. It had been released in this area specifically because of the school. Someone had wanted to kill and turn a lot of kids. The doors were wide open and if you looked hard enough, you could see the blood. The snowfall in the last few minutes had covered up a lot of the signs of the battle, but it had been fierce. At some of the entrances were bodies and body parts. They were mostly destroyed beyond even the ability of the infection to reanimate them. Here, the zombies had feasted.
Janise threw up in t
he snow.
"What do we do now, Shawn?" Dawn asked.
He didn't know. He just stood there in the middle of the street staring at his school and thinking of all of the people who were now either dead or undead. He wondered if Mrs. Hummingbird had survived. There were probably survivors holed up in classrooms and bathrooms and closets. There were probably scores of zombies roaming the building in search of the next meal. He didn't care about them. He didn't care about any of them. All he could feel was empty. He was utterly dejected.
